Publication:
Availability and Pricing of Essential Medicines in Myanmar: Influencing Factors and Recent Trends

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (3.86 MB)
127 downloads
English Text (242.92 KB)
10 downloads
Date
2024-04-08
ISSN
Published
2024-04-08
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report on the Availability and Pricing of Essential Medicines in Myanmar relies on multiple assessments (2021 - 2023) conducted jointly by the World Bank and World Health Organization as well as other publicly available information. This report provides an overview of findings from a mixed-method study to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and political instability on Myanmar’s healthcare system, focusing on the availability of essential medicines. This study combines quantitative data collection from retail pharmacies and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry of the private sector. The study further explored the coping mechanisms households and healthcare providers employ to address the rising prices of essential medicines. Many individuals with chronic conditions reported reducing or skipping medication intake due to financial constraints. Healthcare providers adjusted their prescription choices, often opting for more affordable brands, to mitigate the impact on patients. However, these coping mechanisms were insufficient to alleviate the negative consequences of rising medicine prices. Based on the findings, this study emphasizes the urgent need to address the root causes of rising medicine prices in order to ensure the availability and affordability of essential medicines for all individuals in Myanmar. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the prevailing issues, targeted interventions and programs can be designed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Myanmar’s population.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2024. Availability and Pricing of Essential Medicines in Myanmar: Influencing Factors and Recent Trends. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41389 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    A Generic Drug Policy as Cornerstone to Essential Medicines in China
    (Washington, DC, 2010-06) World Bank
    Compared with developed economies, health expenditure in China is not particularly high on a per capita basis or as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Similarly, pharmaceutical expenditure in comparative perspective is not particularly high on a per capita basis or as a percentage of GDP. China's exceptionally high rate of pharmaceutical expenditure has important implications for the future of a health care system that not only serves a rapidly aging population, but encourages overuse of drugs in ways that are both financially and medically inefficient. Pharmaceutical reform is therefore a high priority for China's health policymakers. Several factors are discussed for reforming this system based on lessons from recent reforms. The section following this introduction briefly reviews the expansion of basic medical insurance coverage in the 2000s and several structural features of the pharmaceutical sector in China. The related concepts of an essential medicines policy, an essential drug list, and a generic drug policy are briefly described in first section. The second section of the paper looks at several hurdles that are built into the path of essential medicines reform. The third section considers some lessons for pharmaceutical reform based on China's recent learning from regional experimentation and piloting initiatives. The fourth section considers several relevant lessons derived from reform experiences in other countries. The fifth section looks at the path forward-success factors for implementing an essential medicines program based on low-cost generic drugs.
  • Publication
    Realigning the Union Budget to Myanmar’s Development Priorities
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-09) World Bank
    Union Budget policies in Myanmar have undergone fundamental shifts since 2011 to accelerate delivery of essential public services. This first ever Public Expenditure Review (PER) for Myanmar tries to better understand these shifts and recommend ways to further align budget policies to development priorities. The Myanmar PER 2015 is divided into five parts: (i) sustainability of aggregate fiscal policy; (ii) rebalancing the composition of the Union Budget; (iii) improving coverage, quality and equity of education services; (iv) going from more to better government spending on health; and (v) a sound fiscal framework for sub-national service delivery. The book is arranged as follws: (i) chapter one starts with introduction; (ii) chapter two deals with sustainability of aggregate fiscal policy; (iii) chapter three focuses on rebalancing the composition of the union budget; (iv) chapter four deals with improving the coverage, quality and equity of education; (v) chapter five suggests from more to better government spending on health; and (vi) chapter six talks about fiscal framework for sub-national service delivery.
  • Publication
    Analysis of Access to Essential Health Services in Myanmar 2021-2023
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-08) World Bank
    This report provides an analysis of access to essential health services in Myanmar from 2021 to 2023, based on publicly available sources of information as well as multiple assessments conducted jointly by the World Bank and World Health Organization during this timeframe. Myanmar faces a multitude of healthcare service delivery and access challenges, which impact the health status of the population and the country’s human capital. The COVID-19 pandemic and political situation since February 2021 have compounded these challenges. Within this context, increasing vulnerability to communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, exacerbate the health risks faced by the population, while a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) result in immediate health concerns with long-term implications for productivity.
  • Publication
    Assuring the Quality of Essential Medicines Procured with Donor Funds
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Moore, Thomas; Lee, David; Konduri, Niranjan; Kasonde, Lombe
    The donor community spends millions of dollars annually on procuring essential medicines as part of development assistance for health. Defining and enforcing quality standards for these medicines continues to prove challenging as this involves complex regulatory processes. While developed countries with stringent regulatory authorities in place have the capacity to comply with strict regulatory requirements, the essential medicines procured for developing countries are either not available in developed country markets, or are not the most competitively priced medicines internationally. Donors have therefore been forced to independently develop systems to purchase at lowest feasible cost, essential medicines for the developing world without compromising quality. Through a desk review and consultation with key stakeholders, this paper compiles data on various approaches used by international agencies and donor bodies to improve the quality of essential medicines they procure, beyond the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification of medicines program and the global fund expert review panel, which focus only on medicines for treating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. This paper additionally explores pragmatic options for a harmonized approach to ensuring the quality of medicines procured with donor funds. Based on the observed limitations of existing approaches, this paper considers a risk-based approach initiated by WHO, through which medicines in the WHO model list of essential medicines are classified according to risk categories (high, medium, and low). In the long run, the goal of international donor aid is to build the capacity of developing countries to take the lead in assuring the health of their citizens. Effective harmonization, coordination, and optimal leveraging of existing approaches may help national regulatory authorities to strengthen their own capacity to better control their markets, including registering products according to stringent standards, improving domestic manufacturing where applicable, and enhancing post-marketing surveillance.
  • Publication
    Strategic Planning for Poverty Reduction in Vietnam : Progress and Challenges for Meeting the Localized Millennium Development Goals
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-01) Swinkels, Rob; Turk, Carrie
    This paper discusses the progress that Vietnam has made toward meeting a core set of development goals that the government recently adopted as part of its Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (CPRGS). These goals are strongly related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but are adapted and expanded to reflect Vietnam's national challenges and the government's ambitious development plans. For each Vietnam Development Goal, the authors describe recent trends in relation to the trajectories implied by the MDGs, outline the intermediate targets identified by the government, and discuss the challenges involved in meeting these. Relative to other countries of similar per capita expenditures, Vietnam has made rapid progress in a number of key areas. Poverty has halved over the 1990s, enrollment rates in primary education have risen to 91 percent (although there is a quality problem), indicators of gender equity have been strengthened, child mortality has been reduced, maternal health has improved, and real progress has been made in combating malaria and other communicable diseases. In contrast, Vietnam scores worse than other comparable countries in the areas of child malnutrition, access to clean water, and combating HIV/AIDS. A number of important crosscutting issues emerge from this analysis that need to be addressed. One such challenge is improving equity, both in terms of ensuring that the benefits of growth are distributed evenly across the population and in terms of access to public services. This will involve addressing the affordability of education and curative health care for poor households. Improvements in public expenditure planning are needed to align resources better to stated desired outcomes and to link nationally-defined targets to subnational planning and budgeting processes. There is also a need to address capacity and data gaps which will be crucial for effective monitoring.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Economic Recovery
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06) Malpass, David; Georgieva, Kristalina; Yellen, Janet
    World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.
  • Publication
    Cash in the City
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01) Khosla, Saksham; Gentilini, Ugo; Almenfi, Mohamed
    Poverty and crises are rapidly “urbanizing†. Yet experience with operationalizing cash transfers in urban areas is limited. This paper captures early lessons from a new generation of urban cash transfer responses to Covid-19 in eleven African countries. The analysis contextualizes such initiatives within a longer-term trajectory of urban social protection programs from the early 2000s. A range of lessons emerge around design and implementation, partnerships, institutions and political economy, strategic issues, and evidence and learning.
  • Publication
    Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) Calleja, Ramon V., Jr.; Mbuya, Nkosinathi V.N.; Morimoto, Tomo; Thitsy, Sophavanh
    The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.
  • Publication
    Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12) Malpass, David
    World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.
  • Publication
    Brazil Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank Group, Washington DC, 2023-05-04) World Bank Group
    Brazil is highly exposed to climate change risks. The impacts of global climate change risks and local practices on the Amazon and Cerrado biomes are of particular concern, as they provide vital ecosystem services to Brazil, the South American region, and the world. The Brazil Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) examines the implications of climate change and climate action for Brazil's development objectives and priorities. It identifies opportunities for Brazil to achieve both its development goals and its climate commitments. It lays out a combination of sectoral and economy-wide policy reforms, as well as targeted investments in near- and medium-term mitigation and adaptation measures to achieve more rapid and inclusive development with lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The idea is to maximize synergies between climate and development objectives, while addressing trade-offs among policy objectives and key transition challenges.